8 Keys that Unlock the Keto Code

Low-carb and keto diets are all the rage these days. You probably know someone who has tried it or even tried it yourself. In 2019, I endured a year-long, medically-supervised ketogenic diet to reverse type 2 diabetes. I say endured because restricting to under 30 g of carbs per day is quite challenging, especially coming from the diet that got me into trouble in the first place. After all, an Olive Garden breadstick has 25 g of carbs. After that year, I assumed the ketogenic diet worked, at least from the standpoint of improving all my blood markers. The problem was sustainability, and I ended up swinging back the other way again. Rather than becoming more metabolically flexible, my metabolism was worse when I stopped the ketogenic diet. I had no idea what was going on until I read Dr. Steven Gundry’s latest book Unlocking the Keto Code.

What is a ketogenic diet?

On a standard diet of a mixture of carbohydrates, protein, and fat, our mitochondria produce fuel for our bodies by taking glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids and converting them into a unique molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is an energy source used by our cells. On low-carb or ketogenic diets (restricting carb intake to between 20–30 g per day), the body is not receiving the usual carbohydrates to break down into glucose for fuel. The next fuel source is…